Creating and Leading a Team to Success - Essay Example

Team Building Team Building: Creating and Leading a Team to Success Team Building 2 Team Building: Creating and Leading a Team to Success The process of team building within an organization is essential for creating strong bonds to support the goals of a group. In the process of building a team, exercising the links between the team is essential in order to create a flexible, yet powerful, positive force. Without a good team, it is difficult for the goals of an organization to move forward without being bogged down in issues that develop out of a disconnected system of people who have not joined together in their efforts. The art of team building should be learned and effectively put to use by every manager who leads a group with a common goal, whether it be in sports, business, or construction. In defining what a team is in reference to business considerations, it must be understood that the word team means different things to different organizations. Some organizations use the word as a philosophy to support the concept that all the individual efforts contribute to the overall success of the business. At other times, there is an organizational structure that includes smaller teams that contribute individual projects to the overall success of the larger organization. A general guideline for the concept of the teams within the structure of a business includes the following aspects: 1. Is a small group of people. Too few or too many and its difficult to manage or get results. The optimal size depends on the task. 2. Is committed to a shared purpose of goal. There is a specific reason the team exists and why the members engage with one another. 3. Has complementary skills. Too much of this and not enough of that can mean the core capabilities are missing. Team Building 3 4. Has mutual and individual accountability. Individuals manage their own work, and also share accountability for the team’s results. 5. Works interactively and interdependently. Individuals rely on each other to meet their objectives instead of trying to get there alone (Duke 2005: 4). Although research into the concept of team building was actively pursued between the 1960’s and the 1980’s, the activity of team building became a more common property of business building in the 1980’s when excess in corporate revenue allowed for expenditures on corporate retreats and interventions (Koppes 2007: 428). The current models are based on the concepts of “increasing role clarification and social aspects of teams” (Koppes 2007: 428). When building a team, the dynamics of the team and the needs of the goals must all be considered in order to develop a successful venture. Determining when a team must be built is the initiating decision in forming a productive group. Some of the deciding factors in building a team depend on whether or not a project has been “defined well enough to determine the appropriate participants”, however, “the project should not be defined in so much detail that it discourages ownership” (Heerkens 2002: 79). In order to invest the people who have been designated for the group into a project, some of the planning must be assigned to them. When a person’s opinions and ideas have become part of a goal, an investment in the success of the goal has been made. Other considerations must be given to the costs that are required, whether that refers to monetary, business, or personal concerns, and to the consideration of the contribution to the project that is available from each member. Team Building 4 Team building is defined in terms of business for two activities involving groups with common goals. When it becomes necessary to put together a group of people whose goals will be similar within an organization, building a team that can work together with positive results is essential to the process. The biggest mistake a manager can make is in not forming a team mentality on the first day that the team is assembled. “Failure to begin the team building process may result in a team that is more like a group than a team. In a group, members may be involved, but not committed to the activities of the majority” (Lewis 2002: 118). According to the book, Building Effective Teams (2005: 2), a team requires three functioning aspects in order to be successful. The three aspect are: 1. Aligning their team’s actions to specific purposes. 2. Ensuring that the right resources and people are available to the team. 3. Managing the teams internal and external relationships Creating quality dynamics between the individuals on a team requires careful selection and development of a collective that works as a unit, each individual contributing like a gear in a mechanism. As in a mechanism, if one of those gears is not operating effectively, then it diminishes the ability for the team to function. If none of the gears are lined up appropriately, then the whole system declines into ruin. This is when the second form of team building becomes necessary. Team building can be a term that refers to the creation of a motivational program that creates trust and bonding between the individual on a team. When the team fails to operate effectively, or when the circumstances of the project will require intense Team Building 5 performance, it will be necessary to create team building designs to create the necessary bonds between the individuals who will be responsible for the working order of the team. The following three situations will transfer pressures onto a team that will need to either be prevented or repaired: 1. The speed at which their teams will have to form and produce results 2. The distance that will separate the members. 3. The blurred boundaries of membership and accountability (Duke 2005: 2) When a team is created, or when it begins to show signs that it is not functioning at an optimum level, group dynamic exercises in a team-building design may be necessary to promote a successful result. The psychology of building a team is based on the principles of behavioral science. Actively pursuing exercises that are designed to build better links between members of a group with common goals may become necessary when the dynamics of the group have diminished and the effectiveness of the present system no longer is maintaining the same functional level. The process of building a team include the following steps: 1. Information gathering. The consultant or will want to know why team building is being requested, the issues of primary concern to the group, and how the team members view the issues, a brief history of the team, if they have been articulated. Any information relevant to the resolution of the issues should also be shared with the consultant or manager. In short, the consultant or manager must be brought into the confidence of the team. 2. Team-building design. The manager or consultant will design a team building process based upon the nature of the team and the issues that need to be addressed. This stage can be more art than science, as a multitude of options are available from the highly analytic to the highly creative. The Team Building 6 style of information should be consistent with the personal style of the consultant or manager, or amenable to team members, and, obviously, appropriate to surfacing and addressing the issues of the team. 3. Intervention. The consultant or manager intervenes in the team by initiating the team-building process. The intervention will consist of introducing the team building effort to the team, identifying the key issues surfaced in the information gathering phase, setting objectives for the team building, and implementing the team building design. The initial team building meeting may take the form of an introduction or may comprise the entire design depending on the nature and the extent of the issues to be dealt with. 4. Ending. The team building itself may have no formal ending to the extent that the team internalizes and continues to use the new process skills and insights gained through implementation of the team building design. However the consultant may discontinue his or her work with the group, or the manager may shift focus away from team building per se and back to the task goals of the team. This is not likely to occur until the team feels that significant progress has been made in addressing the issues and that they now have the skills needed to deal with the issues if they should arise again (Jones 1991: 590) Team building design requires a solid knowledge of the project and an understanding of the team and its issues. When creating resources to advance the needs of the team, it is important to take all members into consideration, as well as the team goals. Team building can be an active pursuit that can have benefits to a project or a sector of a company. According to Jex (2002: 450), there are some studies that have arrived at empirical evidence that supports the proposal that team building intervention has little to no effect on the success of a team. However, there are also studies that suggest that team building can “improve a number of group processes” (Jex 2002:450). The success of a team, research shows, “is greatly influenced by members’ attitudes about the organization. If the team members feel support and commitment from management, Team Building 7 they will exhibit high productivity. If team members are angry because of a lack of organizational support, they will limit their efforts” (Macken 1994: 2). As in all aspects of business, effort put in by management is equal to the results that come out of the efforts of the members of the organization. The critical member of the team is the team leader. This statement is not meant to diminish the importance, in fact the essential nature of each member of the team. However, a team can only ever be as good as its leader. How leadership is developed for the team will determine the ability for the team to succeed. In order for a team leader to be at optimum effectiveness, it is essential that problem solving be a well developed skill. If the team leader can take on the obstacles that present as problems to the team, deal with them, and make them go away, the team is then free to function. “Just as project management is a discipline made up of accepted techniques and processes, problem analysis has its own body of knowledge that is captured primarily in the quality management literature” (Schneider 2005: 145). Another vital aspect of team leadership is in determining the way in which decisions for and with the team will be made. A clear division between what are decisions that will be made by the leader and what will be made with the group collectively, must be defined. All decisions should not be made by the leader because this will disrupt the investment made by the team members and diminish their collaborative spirit. According to Verzuh (2005: 260), “A team functions best when members know which decision mode they are applying to any problem and why”. However, leading a democracy does not necessarily mean that a team is strong. Team Building 8 Decisions that are made by a strong leader with absolute finality to the ultimate decision that is made creates a stronger team. Verzuh (2005: 262) states that “Ironically, strong teams need leaders who will make autocratic decisions”. As much as involvement in the decision making process is important to the members of the team, it is also important that the leader no when to make definitive decisions. There are several ways in which a team may be lead. A traditional leader is defined by a leader who “focuses on control, seeks to minimize risk, and pushes to be the initiator of action.“ (Marquardt 2005: 134). However, another method of team leadership can is the Coach-Questioner method. In this form of leadership, the leader is more of a guide through the team processes and “sees the team as having an independent existence in its own right, serving a larger organizational purpose”(Marquardt 2005: 134). Under this form of leadership, “A coaching, questioning leader develops a group which possesses and demonstrates a culture of trust, support, and open discussion. In this type of leadership, the leader reminds people of their capabilities and strengths, and that they are more likely to continue to build their power as a group” (Marquardt 2005: 134). This method of leadership can build a powerful, independent team that can function independently, as well as part of the overall organization. In creating this relationship, a process that is referred to as GROW has been developed. GROW stands for “Goals, current Reality, Options for improvement, and finally on What they will commit to do to improve”(Marquardt 2005: 134). When using questions to provoke a team to create, the team will respond with interest and investment. There is a risk that the collaborate effort will be interrupted by disagreement, however a successful leader using Team Building 9 this method will use questions that will guide the group to a consensus. For a leader with a goal, building a team can be a very rewarding effort. Even if the team is designed for a single project, when the project is over it the results in better individual members of the organization. If the team remains in tact, the growth experienced will increase the productivity of the team. Here’s the beauty of building a team: You end up with a staff of self starters. People see what needs to be done and they do it. They don’t wait to be told. They know that their manager has confidence in them. If you build this kind of team, the staff will not tolerate a slacker in the group, because the slacker brings down the entire department and that reflects badly on them and on you (Belkar 1997: 46). Under these circumstances, the team building will build fiercely loyal employees who will not allow the goals of the company to be diminished by any action by themselves or their fellow team members. The bonding will create a sense of a family group that may quarrel among themselves, but will eventually come to a consensus and put their decisions into action. Another form of leadership that can exist in an organization that is comprised of teams is the self-directed work team. This type of team is empowered and will, in fact, be able to direct their managers in courses of action that will best for the organization. A more contemporary name for this type of team is the high-performance team. Employee empowerment can be a powerful tool for creating raised levels of expectation and competition. Fisher (2000: 3) says that “real empowerment upends traditional organizational structures, policies, and practices and forces operations to question the traditional methods of management that have dominated corporations for the last hundred Team Building 10 years”. This type of high energy, equalizing responsibility creates a loyalty and a sense of vision within a corporation that can greatly elevate the performance of the business. This type of team changes the role of management in very significant ways. Managers function as team leaders who listen to the team and put into place the appropriate recommendations. Sometimes a business must go through changes in order to increase their performance. The path through this change will often require a change in organizational culture. This type of change requires a movement throughout the company that is adapted by all members. All those who do not adapt must either be motivated or their position changed to one that cannot affect the overall newly developed culture. In order to understand the need for such a complete change, an understanding must be made about the six requirements that are needed to run a successful company. The first requirement is the creation of high barriers of entry. This means that the company has placed itself into a position where any other competing company will not be able to afford the costs of maintaining a level in comparison. The second requirement is nonsubstatutable products. This product cannot be duplicated by any other company, by patent, branding, or any other producible means. The third requirement is by maintaining a large market share which allows for discounts and concessions that smaller firms cannot manage. The fourth condition is low levels of bargaining power for buyers. This condition is met when there is no competition available to meet the demands of the buyer. The fifth condition is created when suppliers have a low level of bargaining power. In order to adequately sell their products, the supplier must meet your expectations. The Team Building 11 final and sixth condition that must be met occurs when there is a rivalry among competitors. Competitors struggle against each other. (Cameron 2006: 3). In order to meet these new levels of performance, a business will more than likely require a change in their organizational culture. This change will more than likely require teams to be developed into high-performance teams who are each responsible for elevating the level of their responsibility in regard to these conditions in order to change the way in which the organization performs. Changing the way a business operates can create a significant factor or resistance on the onset. However, once the changes provide results, the employees who meet with success will have this new ideal reinforced with the rewards of the success, while those who cannot adapt will not succeed. Seeing the success of teams that use the new organizational structure succeed may bring others around to an understanding of the new goals. Team building has great advantages within business, both large and small. By creating an environment that promotes successful growth by employee empowerment, a corporation can rise on the energy and loyalty of employees who are committed to their contributions. When teams are not functioning at their optimum efficiency, it is possible that exercises designed to promote unity and loyalty within the team must be provided through an intervention. It is important to recognize the need for focus within a team and have a leader that can choose a method of promoting unity through the best method of management in order to increase productivity. Team building is a process that requires a clear vision of the goals that need to be met, an understanding of the most suitable dynamics of a team, and the ability to work toward the greater good of the company. Team Building 11 List of References AUSTIN, S. A. (2001). Design chains: a handbook for integrated collaborative design. London, Thomas Telford. BELKER, L. B. (1997). The first-time manager. New York, AMACOM. CAMERON, K. S., & QUINN, R. E. (2006). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: based on the competing values framework. The Jossey-Bass business & management series. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. COHEN, L. M., MCCHARGUE, D. E., & COLLINS, F. L. (2003). The health psychology handbook: practical issues for the behavioral medicine specialist. Thousand Oaks, Calif, Sage Publications. Duke Corporate Education. Building Effective Teams. Leading from the center. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Pub, 2005. FISHER, K. (2000). Leading self-directed work teams: a guide to developing new team leadership skills. New York, McGraw-Hill. GLEN, P. (2003). Leading geeks: how to manage and lead people who deliver technology. Warren Bennis signature series. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass. HEERKENS, G. (2002). Project management. A Briefcase book. New York, McGraw- Hill. JEX, S. M. (2002). Organizational Psychology : A Scientist-Practitioner Approach. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. JONES, J. W., STEFFY, B. D., & BRAY, D. W. (1991). Applying psychology in business: the handbook for managers and human resource professionals. Issues in organization and management series. Lexington, Mass, Lexington Books. KOPPES, L. & THAYER, P.W. (2007). Historical perspectives in industrial and organizational psychology. Mahwah, New Jersey, Routledge. LEWIS, J. P. (2002). Fundamentals of project management: developing core competencies to help outperform the competition. New York, AMACOM. MACKIN, D. (1994). The team building tool kit: tips, tactics, and rules for effective workplace teams. New York, American Management Association. Team Building 12 MARQUARDT, M. J. (2005). Leading with questions: how leaders find the right solutions by knowing what to ask. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. SCHNEIDER, F. W., GRUMAN, J. A., & COUTTS, L. M. (2005). Applied social psychology: understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Thousand Oaks, Calif, SAGE Publications. VERZUH, E. (2005). The fast forward MBA in project management. The fast forward MBA series. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons. Read More